D-Day's only Victoria Cross

As from ATB's D-Day

The action at Crepon involving The Green Howards during first days fighting:

When the men came under fire at the entrance to Crepon, Lieutenant Colonel Robin Hastings, the battalion commander, was anxious to press on to his assigned objective-St. Leger on the Caen-Bayeux road-lest his advance get bogged down in lengthy-and costly- house to house fighting. He therefore ordered B and C Companies to bypass the village while D Company was to stay behind to clear the road ahead. 'Don't get caught up in trying to clear every German out of the village,' Hastings told the D Company commander, Major Lofthouse. 'It may well be held in some strength. Just do the minimum necessary to open the road for us to use.' Major Lofthouse briefed his platoon commanders as to their duties, and Sergeant-Major Hollis was given a farm on the far side of the village to search. He found the farmhouse itself empty, save for a small boy aged about ten sheltering in the corner of one room. (The same boy, M Lahaye, still lives at the farm).

Finding the farmhouse itself empty, the Sergeant-Major decided to search outside. Hollis goes on to explain that he took his platoon along a alleyway and at the end he took a careful look around the corner to be met by a bullet, knocking a piece off the corner he was looking around. He says, 'Now I got back pretty smartly, stood few seconds had another look round and I saw two dogs in the hedge...in the far hedge... and they were jumping up and down and wagging their tails, obviously friendly with someone that was there. So I went out and told the company commander what I had seen.' He then goes onto to say there was a unknown field gun in the hedge so he told seven or eight of his 'chaps' to dash out to some cover and start firing at the hedge while he went down a stretch of rhubarb.

He got a PIAT from the company and bought two Bren Gunners back with him. The seven or eight 'chap's gave him covering fire while he crawled back through the rhubarb and they were immediately killed. Hollis crawled through the rhubarb to the forward edge of the patch and he put a bomb in the PIAT, and fired it, but it was no good and fell short. Unfortunately for the Sergeant Major the shot has attracted the attention of the field gun and fired a shot (he thought directly at him), but fortunately it hit the house behind him.

Hollis later explained: 'So I thought, no, hell with this, I'm getting out of this. So I crawled out of the rhubarb with my PIAT and rejoined the company on the road. When I got back to the comapny we heard a hell of a noise going on back there, and I realised then that the two Bren gunners who came with me hadn't come back. So I said to the company commander, "Well, I took them in, I better go and get them out". So I got a Bren gun this time....came along the passage....and I ran out with the Bren, firing it from my hip and I shot up the far hedge. At the same time I shouted to those two lads to come back out of it. They did, and by that time I had emptied the magazine of the Bren gun, they were able to get back and we all made a smart move back to join the comapny.'

Company Sergeant Major Hollis's Victoria Cross was the only VC to be awarded for gallantry on D-Day. The 'rules' for the award dictate that the battalion commander is the initiating officer who puts a name forward for consideration. The actual exploit has to have been witnessed by atleast three people and, if the application is successful, the regiment then writes up the citation. Unfortuantely, all the Victoria Cross files for the Second World War at the Ministry of Defence were destroyed some years ago, so it is no longer possible to add further background information in Reg Hollis's case.

Stan Hollis died in February 1972 and his VC was sold at auction in 1983 for £32,000. By comparison, it is difficult to put a price on a Medal of Honor-the equivalent American award instituted for the US Army in 1862 for bravery in action- because, until very recently, US Federal Law prohibited the purchase of military decorations and none of the four D-Day Medals of Honor have ever come onto the market.



Warrant Officer Class II Stanley Elton Hollis

The King has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Victoria Cross to No.4390973 Warrant Officer Class II (Company Sergeant Major) Stanley Elton Hollis, The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment) (Middlesborough).

In Normandy on 6 June 1944, during the assault on the beaches of the Mont Fleury Battery, CSM Hollis's comapny commander noticed that two of the pill-boxes had been bypassed, and went with CSM Hollis to see that they were clear. When they were 20 yards from the pillbox, a machine gun opened fire from the slit and CSM Hollis instantly rushed straight at the pillbox, firing his Sten gun. He jumped on top of the pillbox, re-charged his magazine, threw a grenade in through the door and fired his Sten into it, killing two Germans and making the remainder prisoner. He then cleared several Germans from a neighbouring trench. By this action, he undoubtedly saved his company from being fired on heavily from the rear and enabled them to open the main beach exit.

Later the same day, in the village of Crepon, the company encountered a field gun and crew armed with Spandaus at 100 yards range. CSM Hollis was put in command of a party to cover an attack on the gun, but the movement was held up. Seeing this, CSM Hollis pushed right forward to engage the gun with a PIAT from a house at 50 yards range. He was observed by a sniper who fired, and grazed his right cheek, and at the same moment the gun swung round and fired at point-blank range into the house. To avoid the fallen masonry, CSM Hollis moved his party to an alternative position. Two of the enemy gun crew had by this time been killed, and the gun was destroyed shortly afterwards. He later found that two of his men had stayed behind in the house and volunteered to get them out. In full view of the enemy who were continually firing at him. Under cover of his diversion, the two men were able to get back.

Wherever fighting was heaviest, CSM Hollis appeared and in the course of a magnificent days work, he displayed the utmost gallantry and on two separate occasions his courage and initiative prevented the enemy from holding up the advance at critical stages. It was largely through his heroism and resource that the company's objectives were gained and casualties were not heavier, and by his own bravery he saved the lives of many of his men.